Weekly Question #5: Complete by October 11, 2018

Take a look at two infographic sites: The Daily Infographic and Cool Infographics. Find a graphic that does a nice job of telling a story. Post a link to the graphic and explain why you think it’s an example of a good data visualization.

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Comments

I chose this infographic because I love running, and I think it does a good job of conveying all the aspects of your body and mind running affects. It is effective in communicating a message because it uses various sizes of text to distinguish main points from supporting points, everything is organized in a logical way, and it uses pictures that are interesting/funny to grab the viewers attention. It also uses color schemes to give everything a cohesive look. The use of icons gives more information without more text.

This is a good example of data visualization because it helps the audience get a good understanding of patterns in data through the use of side-by-side percentages and visually-appealing images. Furthermore, the information is very condensed into layman’s terms so we can easily understand the arguments. Lastly, it tells a good story by explaining human biology, the reasons we use social media, the dark side of social media, and how to use social media less.

This infographic unfolds a story about the appearance of coca-Cola in Spain in 1953. I chose this infographic especially because Coca-Cola is a national brand recognized worldwide. The infographic takes universal symbols describing its focus on sustainability, recyclablity and energy consumption with images of solar power windmills, trees, water, and oranges. The messages are in spanish, and unless you know spanish, you will not be able to decipher what message the infographic intends to portray.

One of the graphics also includes a constant switching of the different products under the Coca-Cola brand to show the evolution of Coca-Cola in Spain. The universal symbols and the switching product GIF provide a unique background story for Coca- Cola in Spain, without having to understand the Spanish language. This is a good example of data visualization. Without the symbols and GIF, the data would be hard to follow and interpret.

The infographic I chose was http://coolinfographics.com/blog/2018/8/6/an-introduction-to-hydroponics.html. I chose this infographic because I feel it is very engaging; I do not know much about hydroponics yet I was instantly intrigued because of the visuals. The visuals are very detailed. They are also used effectively because they are all categorized and easy to interpret This infographic also has a clear purpose as shown with definition at the top- the purpose is to educate people of hydroponics. I think the last thing that would make it a great example of data visualization is to either try the different systems and see if they work, or make sure that all the plants at the end are actually the best for getting hydroponically grown.

I had chosen the infographic, “How America Uses its Land”. The infographic displays a map of the USA, categorized by land usage. I think this is a particularly good example of data visualization because the visual is able to effectively show various areas of America and the majority of its purpose for land use. The image shows areas that do not completely remain within state boundaries. This information is best portrayed through this image as it allows the viewer to immediately understand the patterns between land usage and areas of the US. This information could not be as well understood if it was not in a visual context because it is more challenging to see the patterns and exact locations within America that use land for primarily one purpose.

I think this infographic of an “Animated History of Home Siding Materials” does a phenomenal job of telling a story about how the consumer market use of different types of siding has changed over the last 40 years. The infographic is a video with a timeline. Seeing how the graphic changes with the percentage shown changing gives a great visual representation of how it changes over the years. It takes you on a story about it. It caught my eye immediately and I’m sure it catches other’s eyes as well.

http://coolinfographics.com/blog/2018/9/17/animated-history-of-home-siding-materials.html
I really like this example of data visualization. I like how the different home siding materials change in size by whatever percentage it is so you can really get an idea of the most popular and least popular materials in each year. Overall it’s a good setup with the years changing across the top and then the percentages and actual material visuals changing below.

The link to the infographic I chose is from Daily Infographic and the title of it is “If Your Pet Could Talk” (https://www.dailyinfographic.com/what-your-pet-thinks). I think this infographic is a good example of data visualization because the visually-appealing graphics were very easy to understand by condensing information. Each segment of the infographic was clearly designated for a different animal an what the particular animal could say, allowing viewers to quickly understand the information given to them.

I chose the Impact running has on body infographic because I feel like it is a great representation of all the positive affects running has on your body. I love to run, I run wherever and whenever I can. I really can relate to most of the statements in the infographic. It really hits on the key benefits and is very easy for a person to follow and understand if they are able to read english of course. The pictures would not tell a non english speaker the full story. I believe this would be a great infographic to explain to people everything running can do to your body in a simple, attractive way.

I chose this info-graphic because it communicates multiple messages efficiently. Each graphic details why that place won’t exist in the future, while also communication why you should visit. There is also a good balance of text to pictures. It communicates a lot of information without seeming cluttered.

I picked this infographic topic because first off I found it hilarious and secondly it was very informative in a cartoony manner. Personal health has always been very important to me no matter whether it is through hygiene, playing sports or working out. This being said… the waste your body produces is a tell tale sign of:
1) What type of impact is being made by the nutrients you’re inputting.
2) How your body functionality is working and whether there is anything wrong.

Through this short and entertaining infograph one can quickly learn what different colors/smells/textures of your poop can tell you and what they indicate.

I liked this data visualization because it provides benefits of waking up early in a fun and easy to read way. It provides pictures, statistics and tips all along the visualization that keeps the reader reading from beginning to end. This is a much better way to retrieve information instead of reading these benefits in paragraph form. I wake up early myself and can definitely relate to a few of these benefits, which is why this data visualization caught my eye.

I think that this infographic is a good example of data visualization for many reasons. One of the major ones being that each fact represents exactly what it is telling you, whether it comes to the numerical look of the graphic or the color coordinating (they even have a key for those). Another being that it is very organized. It is not a giant mess but rather spread out and even dividing some by lines.

I choose this graphic as it does a good job explaining dog sleeping habit, a seemingly complicated science topic in a way that is easy to understand. At the beginning of the topic, the creators put the data of dog sleep/ human sleep side by side, which make comparison much easier. In addition, the graphic of the infographics is beautiful and interesting, which captures readers’ attention.

I felt I didn’t have to read the title of the graph to tell me the story. I could tell that the labeled areas are used for or are most popular in the defined area. You can tell the size easily, and the data titles are clearly named.

This infographic created a good story by telling us where we should go and why we should go to each place. I think it is a good representation of Data Visualization because it shows each places with pictures and things to do there. Also, it goes from rankings 10 to 1 on the time you have to see these places. It gives the reasoning to why these places are not going to be seen again by the public. There is a perfect balance of information about the certain location and with pictures of the group.

http://coolinfographics.com/blog/2018/9/17/animated-history-of-home-siding-materials.html
I chose the one on cool infographics where it shows the change in material in home sidings over the past 40 years. I thought that this one was very interesting as it shows how wood basically became obsolete and a new material of vinyl siding became very popular in the present. It’s a good example of data visualization as it clearly shows the percentages of each in the pie chart and how it changes over the years very clearly.

I chose the one on how beer and coffee effects your brain. I found the Infographic very useful because it gives you a lot of information makes everything easily readable. The pictures and animations makes it fun to read the information. It provides scientific and health information in an interesting way. First the comparison between the two, then the pros and cons and lastly the conclusion. I am a big coffee person so thats why i choose this infographic.

I really appreciated how simple & straight forward this graphic was in instructing the reader on different ways to start a fire. This graphic is able to be interpreted by anyone who can identify the necessary items at the start of each suggestion. The illustrations accurately & simply deliver the necessary information to solve the problem at hand. I find it very important for info graphics to be simple, and to be interpreted by as many individuals as possible.

This visual is a good example of data visualization because it allows the viewer to clearly understand the purpose of the visual. I could easily follow what was being shown and I was able to view the changing trend in house foundation materials. One thing I found interesting was the visual’s way of showing the emergence of vinyl. All of the options were clearly displayed and then all of a sudden the vinyl appeared and dominated the others starting with 25% and only gaining traction from there, that caught my attention.

I chose this one because the data visualization showed how Hurricane Florence’s hurricane path differed from previous hurricanes and storms that impacted the Carolinas. As well as paths, the data represents the severity and speed of the previous tropical storms. This data can be used by Carolina residents and officials to determine the path and severity of the upcoming storm. They can use this data to reach a “safe” location from the storm if it occurred.

This is a good example of a visual because it is easy to ready and makes the pint clear. It does not distort facts nor is it misleading. I appreciated how simple this graphic is and how the illustrations are visually pleasing but not confusing.

I really liked this infographic on the 2016 election. One thing I really like is the level of shading, because it helps visualize which areas are heavily Republican/Democrat and can be hard to swing. It also does a very interesting job of showing the population sprawl in America, as Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, but was highly outnumber in terms of sheer land.

This infographic describes the SuperBowl in past years in terms of past winners, viewership, retail sales, etc. The illustrator stays consistent with a color palette, uses relevant images next to certain statistics, and does a great job organizing the data to flow and make sense (like a story). They also use the graphs that make the most sense and show the differences in data in a clear way.

I like this infographic because the dark background color makes the illustrations’ colors pop. The circle graphs seem to be proportionate and they have icons in the middle, which helps visualize what each represents. “The pathway” section shows a sort of flowchart, the path that information travels from a home computer to the data center.

I appreciated the series of infographics used in this post that break down the individual user statistics for major social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter, Pinterest and others. I think this is a good example of data visualization because it is easy to compare certain categories across each platform. For example it is easy to compare the mobile to vs desktop users for each social network because the graphic is is in the same location each time. The male vs female user base is also interesting to compare across the platforms.

I think this chart is a good example of data visualizations because it has a clear message and is easy to understand. First, it compares everything side by side without 3-D effects and at the same starting point so that it is easy to see which values are higher and which values are lower. Second, it backs up the bar heights by providing exact numbers to show how long the battery actually lasts as well. In addition, it uses colors commonly associated with battery life to emphasize which values are high and which values are low. Lastly, it compares the most common phone usages to let people know how long their phone battery will last depending on what they are doing on their phone.

I really enjoyed this infographic because it was extremely organized and easy to read and understand. The visuals added to the story and to the readers understanding of the information that was being displayed. It didn’t seem to have cluttered or unnecessary information and graphics, everything had a purpose. This visuals were pleasing and added to the text that explained the infographic.

I think this infographic is a really good example of data visualization. It is really simple and easy to understand without a lot of words. Not only it shows the changes as time passes, but also it shows the proportion of each item in terms of percentage as well as the actual proportion relative to other items. This really help with understanding the amount that each material is used.

I chose the daily infographic because it is interesting to know what is the percentage of social media users in the overall the world. The graphic is very engaging and clear. They showed historical data, what is the overall percentage of social media users. People can easily understand what the article is trying to say in the graphs. In the graphs, they showed numbers and percent of the people who are using social media. In the graph also they showed how social media users are increasing year by year. Its tell a good story about the number of social media users, by age group, and what kind apps people are using.

https://www.dailyinfographic.com/how-to-fix-common-cooking-mistakes
I choose this because I loving cooking and these are exactly the mistakes I usually make during cooking. It has very cute pictures matching each kind of ingredients. Adding more words can make these graphics to be easier to understand. I am not good at “reading” a map or any other too professional infographics. Simple pictures with listed instructions attract me.

I found this graphic about the Super Bowl to be a good example of data visualization. It tells the story of how the Super Bowl has become “one of the largest consumer spending days of the year.” It efficiently shows through a series of graphics what the other high spending days of the year are and what it is that people spend money on for Super Bowl Sunday. The graphic is very easy to glance at and quickly understand what it is attempting to demonstrate.

I think this animation is a great visulization of how the use of home siding has changed over 40 years. It tells a story of how brick has drastically decreased while vinyl has become much more popular. It is very simple and fun from the moving pieces and materials built within the chart.

I chose this infographic because it’s sleek, simplistic design and style keep things easy to understand, but just interesting enough to be distinct and appealing. It’s very straight forward and reads easily. The line in the middle of the page functions both as a timeline, and a border, separating the information so that both sides of the graphic can be used but things don’t get messy.

Link to Infographic: http://coolinfographics.com/blog/2018/9/17/animated-history-of-home-siding-materials.html
I choose this infographic that is a good example because I can understand the story that the infographic to tell me immediately. I see 6 types of home siding materials with different colors and the colors are similar to the colors of materials. I see the timeline from 1977 to 2017. The infographic uses pie chart to present how many percentage each material was used in the whole in the specific year. Watching the changing from 1977 to 2017, I can see the trend of using home siding materials.

I chose this graphic because it thoroughly explained to me what Hydroponics is. The graphic was separated into organized sections with headings that explained how Hydroponics works, the types of systems, and what plants are best grown with the system. Each section also had images that helped me to understand the process I was being informed about. I found this graphic to be easy to understand and very informative.

I chose this infographic because this is the question I ask my self-everyday and I also end up with the same conclusion that the infographic does. The infographic is very appealing. There isn’t too much information. It is long but, it is asking series of questions. It has humor as well which I appreciate. The graph is easy to read and easy to follow up. The information might not be much use but, this is a great way to display data while keeping the audience captivated.

I chose this graphic because it does a really interesting job at telling a story. To be honest, I’m not at all interested in how siding has changed in the last 40 years, but the graphic got my attention and made me think “oh wow, that’s interesting.” The graphic took something that is inherently boring (to me), but managed to make it into a really interesting,engaging graphic. It is impactful and makes the information stick.

https://www.dailyinfographic.com/your-brain-on-beer-vs-coffee-infographic
I chose this graphic because it clearly explained how human brain affected by coffee and beer. The graph is combine with two part, on the left side displays the beer, and on the right side displays the coffee. At the bottom, it also lists what the pros and cons of those two products. The picture and texts tells me exactly what kind of reaction the brain will have in each stage to each product. Furthermore, they are very lively.

I thought this infographic on ideal temperatures for beverages was a really good example of data visualization. It easily displayed the relevant information without the need for words or complex diagrams and was also interesting to look at and pleasing to the eye, I thought the colored thermometer was a much smarter and interesting way to display the data than just a bar chart or a line graph.

This infographic does a great job of telling the viewer statistics between sports and fatalities. Its easy to read and find comparisons among sports and other activities and hobbies by the probability that someone will die while partaking in said activity.

I think the link above shows good visualizations. It’s simplistic enough where there isn’t any extravagant details or indexes and just gets straight to the point. Also I think it represents a good timeline of how “stories” have evolved in every aspect of social media.

I think that this is a good example of data visualization because you can understand the graphic without having to read too much into it. The changing sizes and percentages over the materials makes it easy to understand the change over time as the timeline moves, I also think it is a good example because being able the visually see the materials on the pie chart instead of just colors coveys the message very clearly so you don’t need to look at the color key.

I picked this graphic, because it gives an easy understanding about cooking and the mistakes that come along with it. It is split up with different images explaining how to fix a certain cooking mistake, example being something too salty. The graphic also depicts the different images of ingredients that will help fix common cooking errors. It is also split into two different sections from cooking mistakes, and baking mistakes.

I think this is graphic tells a great story by adding geographical locations where such deadly spiders are located as well places in our environment where they may choose to secure as their home.
It is also a good source of data visualization because the graphics highlights key characteristics of the various deadly spiders including their physical appearances and depicts the symptoms of the bite from each spider.

I really like this infographic because it tells me a story of the history of home siding materials in a simple way. Even I don’t know much about home siding materials, I can still easily understand what’s going on in this area. This data visualization transferred data into an animated pie chart and people can immediately tell what is the most popular material each year.

Music is what I care about, especially regarding playing musical instruments. The infographic does a great job picturing the percentage of every aspect it presents (non-misleading numbers, percentages adding up to 100%). Colors are minimized to enhance understanding of the graphics – simple but works well. Words are also minimized but enough for viewers to imagine what’s going on. The infographic also makes use of a variety of charts to illustrate her points.

I chose the infographic from FlowingData.com, ‘Street network orientation in major cities’. I thought this told a good story for two reasons. City street layouts are important because they are used in natural disasters and emergencies. It was interesting to see how varied these strategies can be. For example, it could deter you moving to Florida if you saw there was basically no escape plan. It might be a little far out, but my family is military so we think about these things. The second reason is a business perspective. Different layouts can be linked with budgeting costs for infrastructure repair and resulting tax costs.

This infographic tells us the growth of social media over the last 8 years. It shows good data visualization by using different bar charts and interesting layouts. For example, the bar chart with progressive colors clearly shows us the growth trend of social media users and the bar chart with different social media signs easily tell you most people use Facebook. The infographic also emphasizes different numbers when it analyzes every social media. I can easily grab information from this infographic.

https://www.dailyinfographic.com/how-to-become-a-google-power-user
I believe this infographic from the Daily Infographic is a great example of data visualization because the article clearly depicts what it has originally intended; how to become a Google power user. The information is presented in a very simple way and not in a way that is disorderly and unorganized. There are not any overly large graphical representation of data and the article provides a clear example for each item on the list. Later in the infographic, the author associates an image with each “technique” one can use, further providing an easier way individuals can follow this graphic.